New York Panel on Integrity Criticizes New Ethics Law

By FRANK LYNN

Published: December 29, 1988

The New York State Government Integrity Commission has criticized the new state ethics law for overburdening executive and legislative officials and workers in one section and giving them special privileges in another.

The commission, formed in the wake of New York City corruption scandals and usually a strong proponent of full disclosure, called for relaxing the financial-disclosure requirements, which apply to state employees earning more than $30,000 a year. Otherwise, the panel said, the state would be buried under ''a mountain of paper'' from as many as 50,000 employees.

In a report released last week, the commission also criticized loopholes that it said paralyzed district attorneys ''by barring them from prosecuting violations without an official referral from one of the oversight commissions'' the law created. The law goes into effect Sunday.

The commission, headed by Dean John D. Feerick of the Fordham University Law School, also faulted the law for allowing a state official or worker to revise the disclosure form confidentially ''after he or she is caught.'' The commission said District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau of Manhattan had also criticized that section, quoting him as saying, ''No other law permits a violator to undo his crime with full confidentiality.''

The commission said the ''absurdly excessive'' disclosure procedure would generate so much paperwork that it would ''effectively block enforcement of the law when it matters and impose an onerous burden on tens of thousands of employes covered for no good reason.'' To Cover Subway Motormen

As the law is written, subway motormen, who work for a state agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, would be required to file disclosures. Joseph M. Bress, executive director of the State Ethics Commission, which will enforce the new law, said his agency was preparing guidelines to exempt from disclosure entire categories of state and authority workers who do not make policy. Policy-making posts, regardless of salary, fall under the new law.

The Ethics Commission is also preparing guidelines to help authorities define who is a policy maker. Unpaid members of State University advisory councils and boards of visitors of mental health institutions are among those likely to be exempt.

Although the law takes effect Sunday, the disclosures do not have to be filed until May 15, giving the Ethics Commission five months to whittle down the list of Civil Service workers required to file the forms, which will cover income, bank accounts, investments and loans involving the workers and their spouses.

Mr. Bress said he agreed with the Integrity Commission's objections on referring investigations. Changes would need to be adopted by the Legislature.

Some officials have complained that the disclosure requirement, which also applies to party leaders in counties with more than 300,000 people, would discourage participation in government or party leadership.

The president of the Civil Service Employees Association, Joseph E. McDermott, said his aides met yesterday with the staff of the Ethics Commission to seek a broad exemption from disclosure. He said the union represented 100,000 state and 100,000 local government workers, including many who were earning or would ultimately reach at least $30,000 a year.

''The bill was passed with a shotgun approach,'' Mr. McDermott said, adding that he had threatened to swamp the Ethics Commission with requests for individual exemptions by his entire membership.

Governor Cuomo's press secretary, Gary Fryer, said some people had been reluctant to accept posts in the executive branch since Mr. Cuomo first required disclosure by policy makers in an executive order in 1983 that applied solely to the executive branch.

The 1987 act extends that order to the legislative branch and, by Jan. 1, 1991, to local governments outside New York City, which already has a code.